The Greenwich Time is publishing a five-part series this week spotlighting past performances as well as the future of local theater.

Nan der Nier, 93, says she and her childhood friends went to every vaudeville performance they could.

"Vaudeville was even better than the movies. The entertainment world existed then because of vaudeville," recalled der Nier, a lifelong Greenwich resident and former dancer who lives at the Nathaniel Witherell nursing home.

Though Stamford offered a full marquee of acts in those days, der Nier's options were limited in Greenwich, leading her to a choice many residents continue to make today.

"Vaudeville didn't exist in any great extent in Greenwich, but it sure did in New York City," der Nier said.

For a 25-cent admission, Ray's offered vaudeville and a hypnotist show with "mirth, music, mystery," according to an advertisement in a Jan. 22, 1898, edition of the Greenwich Graphic.

The story of formal theaters in Stamford most likely begins on the third floor of the old Town Hall. The building went up in 1870, and its third-floor stage is rumored to have hosted Edwin Booth in his signature role as Hamlet its first decade.

The theater in Town Hall had its own tragedy in store. In 1904, it burned to the ground, as did the Grand Opera House - which stood at the site of the Palace Theatre today.

Around that time, one of the most famous performers of the day lived in Stamford. Magician and escape artist Harry Houdini wrote in some notes that he spent summers in his "country home in Stamford, Connecticut," according to the book "Houdini: The Man Who Walked Through Walls." Several sources cite him as owning a 7-acre farm in the city.

Theaters sprang up in the decades that followed the fires at the two Stamford theaters to house the odd assortment of musicians, comedians, animal tricks, skits, blackface performers, acrobats and "freaks" packaged as vaudeville.

For many years, the Alhambra theater, on what is now Washington Boulevard, hosted almost daily vaudeville shows. Some are documented in the program collection of the Stamford Historical Society, which dates to 1909.

In the early teens, the theater advertised "High Class Vaudeville." Swearing and dirty jokes were forbidden in a bid to attract middle-class families, said Anthony Slide, a historian who has written about vaudeville.

One program from the Alhambra's 1912-13 season features acts such as Arthur Geary, The Red Hussar; blackface comedians LaFrance & McNabb; Bessie's Cockatoos, a novelty bird act; and the Edward Bros., original burlesque strongmen.

The lineup at the Alhambra followed the general template of a vaudeville show: a series of unconnected acts lasting about two hours, Slide said. This form took shape in the 1880s.

"Different types of popular entertainment gradually all coalesced into vaudeville," he said. Southern minstrel shows performed by African-Americans found their way into vaudeville, where whites and blacks donned blackface makeup. Black performers, in particular, were expected to perform derogatory songs and dances, Slide said.

Even so, performers of many races shared the same stages.

The Nicholas Brothers, a black duo whose tap dance routines included acrobatic leaps and splits, graced the Alhambra stage early in their careers.

Most shows in the 1910s and 1920s in Greenwich were primarily local acts prefacing silent movies and, eventually, "talkies."

In April 1915, the film "Cinderella" screened in Greenwich Theatre. It starred Mary Pickford and was filmed at the estate of Commodore Benedict in Greenwich.

In December 1920, Edith Wynne Matthison, a British actress and Lusitania passenger, gave a talk at Greenwich's Havemeyer Auditorium.

These brushes with celebrity were exceptions in Greenwich. Without top stars and first-run movies, the theaters faded as a destination for weekend entertainment seekers. Greenwich Theatre's initial run as a vaudeville and performing arts stage lasted only from 1914 to 1930, before being reopened as a cinema. Pickwick Theatre, which opened in 1929 with 1,915 seats, a Wurlitzer organ and a Spanish courtyard-style interior, was closed by 1959 and turned into a bowling alley.

Meanwhile, the traditional theater gained a stronger foothold in Stamford, when, in 1914, Emily Wakeman Hartley established the Stamford Theatre where the Rich Forum stands today. This stage would host many of the great performers to come through the city.

Newspaper ads from 1919 promote performances of John Drinkwater's drama "Abraham Lincoln" and, a few days later, George Gershwin's first Broadway show, "La La Lucille." Gershwin's show arrived fresh from a five-month run in New York and told the story of a couple who must divorce to inherit a fortune.

Two years later, "Lei Aloha," a play produced by Al Jolson, opened at the Stamford Theatre. A white singer who established himself in black face, Jolson moved on to become a musical comedy star. Six years after "Lei Aloha's" premiere, Jolson would immortalize himself by uttering "You ain't heard nothin' yet," in "The Jazz Singer," a film that ushered sound into moving pictures.

A number of future movie stars appeared on stage at the Stamford Theatre. In 1924, Humphrey Bogart appeared in a supporting role in the comedy "Fool's Gold." In 1927, Bela Lugosi starred in the stage version of "Dracula; The Vampire Play," four years before his performance was captured on film.

About this time, talking films such as "The Jazz Singer" arrived and the Palace as we know it went up on the site of the old opera house.

In 1929, the Palace hosted an "Extra Midnite Show New Year's Eve" featuring the minstrel Eddie Leonard headlining eight acts. A white man, Leonard made his name singing and dancing in blackface makeup with white lipstick. Blackface minstrels were popular acts in Stamford in the days of Town Hall, but the genre died out in the 1930s.

"Critics thought Leonard a gentle minstrel performer, with appealing voice which did not hide a slight Irish brogue," Slide wrote in his book "The Vaudevillians: A Dictionary of Vaudeville Performers."

The talking pictures of the late `20s would eventually overwhelm vaudeville. For years already, theaters such as the Alhambra incorporated moving pictures into their shows, advertising attractions such as the "Photo-Festa," featuring "stereoptician specialties, illustrated travelogues, songs, pictures of children and grown ups."

The Palace Theater in New York City struck the death toll for vaudeville when it ended its twice-a-day shows in 1932, Slide said.

Movies owned the future, but live acts would find room on area stages.

- Staff Writer Andrew Shaw and Advocate City Editor John Breunig contributed to this story.